[ODFW-News] Coombs Canyon offers great upland game bird hunting

[ODFW News]

For Immediate Release Thursday, Nov. 10, 2005

Coombs Canyon offers great upland game bird hunting 
 
PENDLETON - State wildlife officials today said upland game bird hunters
looking for late season opportunities are encouraged to consider The
Coombs Canyon Regulated Hunt Area. 
 
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists counted more upland
game birds in the Pendleton area during surveys earlier this year than
in the past eight or nine years. Although upland game bird hunting
seasons are well underway, hunters can still find upland game bird
hunting opportunities. 
 
Much of the prime upland game bird habitat in the Pendleton area is
privately owned and hunting access can be hard to find. But ODFW
Assistant District Wildlife Biologist Greg Rimbach said the Coombs
Canyon Regulated Hunt Area is one of the few private land, "welcome to
hunt" areas around with both public access and huntable populations of
pheasant and Hungarian partridge.
 
Located just southwest of Pendleton, the Coombs Canyon Regulated Hunt
Area was created by ODFW in 1999 through a cooperative agreement with
rancher Steve Wolfe, who allows open bird hunting access to his
12,500-property in return for an annual per acre payment and additional
Oregon State Police law enforcement. 
 
The ODFW Access and Habitat Program provided the funding to create the
Regulated Hunt Area and continues to support it through regular grants.
Earlier this year, the A&H Program provided a $13,664 grant to allow
continued public use of the area. 
 
The A&H Program is funded by a $2 surcharge on hunting licenses.  Funds
raised by the program are distributed through grants to individual and
corporate landowners, conservation organizations and others for
cooperative wildlife habitat improvement and hunter access projects
throughout the state.
 
Coombs Canyon sees heavy use during the first three weeks of the
pheasant season, especially on weekends. As the season wears on, hunting
pressure drops off considerably, although there are still birds to be
had.
 
During the first part of the season, pheasants are concentrated within
the brushy Coombs Canyon corridor where most hunting is focused. But as
the season goes on the birds begin to scatter. Beginning around Nov. 1,
Rimbach advises hunters to hunt the draws and open grasslands where many
pheasant go seeking refuge from hunters working the canyon bottom.
 
The Regulated Hunt Area also has good numbers of Hungarian partridge.
These challenging game birds are found in the open grassland areas and
are not heavily targeted by hunters. There is also a small population of
California quail concentrated within Coombs Canyon.
 
Pheasant season on the Coombs Canyon Regulated Hunt Area ends Dec. 11.
Hungarian partridge and California quail season end on Dec. 31.
 
Maps showing open roads and welcome to hunt areas are available at the
Coombs Canyon Regulated Hunt Area in a map box posted in the parking
area on Ranch Road, at the ODFW John Day Watershed District Office,
73471 Mytinger Lane, Pendleton and at ODFW headquarters, 3406 Cherry
Ave. NE, Salem.
 
For more information about hunting the Coombs Canyon Regulated Hunt Area
contact the ODFW John Day Watershed District Office at (541) 276-2344.
For information on the A&H Program call program coordinator Nick Myatt,
503-947-6087 or visit the Web site at www.dfw.state.or.us/AH/.
 
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